I slept in until 6am this morning, a great way to kick off the 4th of July.

I got my computer packed up for shipment today, it will be sent out tomorrow. I’m really sad to be parting with that beast of a computer, but since I still (sorta) have an iPhone and my most important files that I use on a regular basis stored on the cloud, the transition away from having my own desktop computer has been made a lot easier. For about an hour I was stuck on trying to figure out kernel flags for starting up the computer, but after several manipulations, it worked out.

The second task at hand today was to wash my ties. This is the first time I had ever done this, so this was a great learning experience. We started out with what would probably have been the worst tie, on the basis we’d probably would not be able to salvage it. The tie I saved was my American Flag tie, it had a big stain from who knows what caused it, and after about an hour of soaking in a water/Woolite blend it slowly gave in and came out. The rest of my ties were decent, but we cleaned them anyways.

At 12 noon, I left for All Saints Episcopal Church for a special organ recital celebrating the birthday of the United States of America. Frank Rippl was the organist today and we had a lovely sing-a-long. Listening to his playing of the great hymns of our nation gave me a lot of inspiration as to how to play these great hymns on Sunday for sacrament meeting. I also loved listening to the E. Power Biggs arrangement of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” with piccolo and whistling mixed in. Definitely the best way to spend a 4th of July.

On the way back from the organ recital today, I went to feed the branch president’s family’s pet rabbit as they are on vacation right now. The rabbit still seems to be nervous of me, but as soon as I feed it, it starts to warm up to my presence.

I was flipping through the cable stations today, which is a very rare occurrence for me, and caught the last half an hour of 1776. Immediately following 1776, was a showing a biopic about George M. Cohan, “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

I started cleaning my room today, but it’s still a long way off from being done. I guess persistence will pay off. Not having a computer to distract me will also help.

At 6:30pm today, the CBS affiliate in Northeastern Wisconsin aired a Music and the Spoken Word broadcast with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. During one of the songs, there was a 2 second clip of Madison, WI on, within 10 minutes, my mother and I figured out which intersection it was with the help of Google Maps. This broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word is attached above.

I have recorded several patriotic broadcasts today: A Capitol Fourth, featuring a brand new arrangement by John Williams of the National Anthem celebrating the Anthem’s 200th anniversary; Great Performances, a concert with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony Orchestra performing at Tanglewood; fireworks from around Northeastern Wisconsin; and an hour long documentary about the Statue of Liberty. I was not able to persuade my mother to let me watch some of it live, so I will have to watch it recorded.